


All Grown Up

by KaRaEa



Series: A Conflict of Interest [4]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Dick is oblivious, Jealousy, M/M, Pre-Slash, Robincest, underage drinking i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 00:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6261790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaRaEa/pseuds/KaRaEa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian is not in a good mood. His encounter with Detective Todd revealed some things he'd rather weren't true, and now he's stuck concealing the reason for his black mood from Grayson.<br/>Grayson is not cooperating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Grown Up

**Author's Note:**

> Oops, I didn't add this to the series. Here ya go.

The gala was boring. Just like the last one and the one before that. The people were boring, the music was boring and the food was small and far inferior to Alfred’s cookies. As usual, being an heir to the Wayne estate meant attendance was practically compulsory. As was remaining at least somewhat polite towards the odious people that swarmed Grayson and himself with overly familiar touching, unasked for flattery and presumptuous questioning of their plans for the future.

Damian by far preferred the _other_ legacy his father had left to him.

With grace born of practice, he dodged yet another aging socialite’s attempt at fondling his face and arms and retreated towards the circle Grayson was entertaining. He’d go practically unnoticed around the other Wayne heir if he could get close enough.

Grayson stood with a beautiful woman under his arm and a dazzling smile as usual, and Damian had to take a sip of champagne to stop himself from grinding his teeth. It all came to Grayson so naturally. Damian used to consider the man a usurper to his father’s legacy, but Grayson showed all the charisma and charm that Bruce Wayne had so effortlessly exuded at these things. And that Damian had never mastered. Sometimes it made him wonder which of them was really Bruce Wayne’s son and which was the usurper.

The pretty blonde under Grayson’s arm whispered something in his ear that Grayson laughed at, pulling her closer.

Damian scowled and changed course, heading instead for another glass of champagne.

“Woah there little D, you already managed to drink one while I was distracted, I’m not letting you get hammered.” Grayson’s hand snatched the glass out from Damian’s grasping fingers with ease before he could take even a sip.

Damian supressed a growl of annoyance. “I am perfectly capable of drinking more than one glass of champagne without embarrassing myself.”

Grayson pulled a face. “Damian, you’re only nineteen, you shouldn’t be drinking at all. Doesn’t matter if you think you can handle it, it’s illegal.”

“Because of course you waited until you were twenty one before you so much as looked at alcohol,” Damian snapped. “Go back to your gold digging floozies and let me endure this evening however I can.”

Grayson looked almost offended. “Damian, you know better than to call people that by now. My friend back there was the daughter of one of the board members. We’ve known each other awhile, she’s just been away at school.”

Damian stopped paying attention past ‘you know better’. He did know better. He just didn’t care when he had these awful people fawning over him for hours without even being allowed to drink.

“Jesus, D, what’s got into you tonight?” Grayson said, drinking the champagne himself.

“Nothing. You know I hate these things,” Damian lied.

Grayson met his eyes. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Damian rolled his eyes and walked off as another pretty girl claimed Grayson’s attention. He doubted the subject would be raised again. For all his hugging and concern, Grayson still followed the Bruce Wayne school of talking through issues, which basically consisted of one principle: don’t.

***

Dick watched Damian stomp away with a frown, despite the giggling woman next to him. One of Babs’s school friends, a sweet enough woman but in his way right now. He needed to make sure Damian was alright. He’d been scowling all night. Worse than usual. These days he could usually at least pretend not to be looking at everyone in disgust, tonight he wasn’t even trying.

With an inward sigh, he turned towards the words directed at him, trying to remember his companion’s name. He’d deal with Damian later, as much as he loathed putting publicity before family. There was time.

That didn’t make it any easier to drag his eyes away from Damian’s tight shoulders and faintly frowning profile. Damian smoothly avoided one guest and smiled unnervingly at another until they left of their own free will and Dick had to supress a laugh. Their eyes met and Dick swallowed subconsciously as Damian’s gaze scanned and passed over him dismissively. He couldn’t look away as the younger, now only, Wayne used every bit of his grace and poise to escape each social situation he was confronted with.

Damian looked down his nose as a business rival of Wayne Enterprises as the man made friendly commentary on the downward trend of Wayne Enterprises stock since the premature death of their second CEO. It was a look that made Dick shiver even though he wasn’t the recipient, no wonder that the business man found other things to do in short order. Dick wondered when Damian got so damn tall. When his features got so harsh and lost the baby softness that’d always taken the edge off his glares.

His observations were of absolutely no help in figuring out what the hell was wrong with Damian, and after a while he gave it up as a lost cause. Dick winced. He’d just have to talk to him.

***

Damian walked into the training area with a scowl. He knew what this was. This was classic Grayson tactile talking. They’d go a few rounds and the idiot would start asking him what was wrong last night. It’d be awkward and uncomfortable, but Grayson would be able to distract himself with movement and contact so the only one left feeling the awkwardness would be Damian.

It wasn’t going to work.

Grayson was intelligent underneath the humour and flippancy, but he was painfully oblivious when it came to Damian. Or rather, when it came to certain parts of Damian. Someone like Grayson was incapable of understanding the way Damian’s mind worked, the twisted way his feelings presented, even the good ones. Bruce had known.  He’d been wary, and rightfully so. If he’d known the way Damian would cling to Grayson he’d have been appalled. Worse still if he’d known how painfully jealous and possessive Damian would become over his would be brother.

Never brother. Damian wouldn’t allow it.

It’d been manageable before Todd. Before Damian realised how far Grayson could go without him even knowing. The thought that he’d been screwing Todd right under Damian’s nose, never deeming it necessary to tell him, to warn him. But why would he? He didn’t know how it would make Damian’s blood boil, make Grayson’s every relationship suspicious in Damian’s eyes, after all if he could keep it from Damian once…

Poor Grayson had no idea that Damian had tasted his lover, felt him pressed tight against his body. Enjoyed it even. The guilt hadn’t helped the twist in Damian’s stomach whenever he thought of Grayson and Todd together. Neither did the heat that arose from the thought that he’d almost been where Grayson had been, a degree separation that brought a different twist to his stomach to war with the first.

“I see you’re your usual chipper self this morning, little D,” Grayson said.

Damian glared and rolled his shoulder, aware that is sent ripples of movement through his bare torso, and stepped up level with Grayson. “I’m not little.”

That seemed to give Grayson pause and he regarded Damian with his head tilted, a confused, half formed thought showing in his eyes.

A few silent stretches and Damian approached the center of the mats. “Begin.”

Grayson did as he was asked and there were no more words through the first round. Damian began to think maybe his worries had been for naught and Grayson had been earnest in his desire to train. Until Grayson pinned him and postured up, meeting his eyes and setting his jaw in determination.

He opened his mouth to speak and Damian swept him, twisting over and continuing the match before a syllable could leave Grayson’s softly parted lips.

“Dami-“ Grayson was cut off again as Damian achieved a headlock, but continued undeterred once free. “Damian, I know something’s up with you. I’m not stupid.”

Damian remained silent.

“C’mon, just tell me what’s wrong and we can figure it out together. You’re not alone,” Grayson said.

“Not even when I wish to be,” Damian grumbled and twisted Grayson into an arm lock before he could regain his feet.

Grayson twisted free with his freakishly flexible joints and nudged Damian away with a foot before flipping easily to stand. “We’re all each other have got now. You gotta open up some.”

“Nothing is wrong,” Damian replied.

“Is that why you spent last night glaring at everyone? You may not be the most personable guy I know, but you’ve got much better at the mingling thing since… Well, since. You can be nice when you want to.” Here Grayson stopped, giving Damian an encouraging look. Damian raised one eyebrow. “Okay, maybe not nice. Maybe… Tolerant? I don’t know. But you whatever you can be, you weren’t last night. You were… Unpleasant.”

Aware that his silence and distance was making Grayson lose his grasp of the conversation, Damian evaded rather than engaged with the next few attacks. He supressed a spiteful smile at Grayson’s obvious frustration and continued to avoid the fight and the conversation. Maybe Grayson would let it drop.

***

Dick was determined not to let it drop.

He knew talking to Damian wasn’t going to be easy, but who else was going to do it? They needed each other, and they needed to talk to each other. Even if neither of them wanted to.

“Damian, please,” Dick said, making another lunge for the teen.

They went down in a pile of limbs, Dick not having expected Damian to drop that easily.

“Usually I manage more than one glass of champagne before you cut me off,” Damian replied. “It is surprising how much of a difference a little inebriation can make, without it I can’t stand those people. Sobriety was the only thing that was wrong with me last night.”

Dick sighed. Self centered as it was he couldn’t help but ask, “Is it me? Was it something I did?”

Damian tensed minutely, covering quickly by expanding the tenseness into arch and rolling them over again. His face hovered near Dick, full of the blankness he learned from his father.

“What did I do?” Dick asked.

Damian climbed off and walked away. Dick thought he was leaving until he stopped and reached for a bottle of water left by the edge of the mats. “Nothing is wrong, Grayson.”

“And I’ll believe that when you stop doing your Bruce Wayne impression,” Dick replied.

Damian flinched.

And this was why Dick didn’t like talking it out. The words were hard to find unless they were completely the wrong ones. It was exposing and it was so much easier to hurt with words than with fists. So much easier to misstep in a conversation than in a fight.

“Look, I need to know what is was or I might do it again,” Dick said. He stayed laying down on the mats, staring just left of the harsh lights above.

“I am not a child and I resent being treated as one,” Damian said at last.

Dick propped himself up on one elbow. “I’m not treating you like a child.”

“Confiscating my drink in front of hundreds of our peers wasn’t a mark of respect,” Damian sniffed.

“You’re nineteen! It’s illegal, and it could stunt your growth!” Dick argued.

Damian raised an incredulous eyebrow. “I am a vigilante who regularly fights hand to hand with physically enhanced criminals.”

Dick couldn’t find a way to answer that so he went for avoidance. “Besides, you were acting off before that.”

“As you like to point out, I am a teenager. Perhaps it was a moodswing,” Damian replied, sarcasm bleeding through his face as much as his voice.

“Damian…”

“Your attempts at mothering me aren’t helping.”

Dick frowned. “I’m not mothering you, it’s a big brother’s job to-“

“You’re not my brother,” Damian interrupted.

***

Grayson’s heartbroken expression made Damian almost immediately remorseful, but he didn’t try to take it back.

“I didn’t know you still felt that way,” Grayson said hollowly.

Damian resisted the urge to rub his face. “I no longer feel you are a pretender, I just…”

“Don’t think of me as family,” Grayson finished for him.

Damian glanced off to the side. This was not a conversation he wanted to be having. In fact, he didn’t want to be having any conversation.

Grayson pulled himself to his feet. “I guess we’re done for today. I’ll see you tonight for patrol.”

“Grayson, wait,” Damian called after him.

Grayson made a poor attempt at a smile. “It’s fine little D, you feel the way you feel. Nothing either one of us can do about it.”

“You are misunderstanding me. I do not see as my brother, but that does not mean that you are not important to me,” Damian tried to explain.

“You don’t have to-“

“Yes, I do,” Damian interrupted. “You are the most important person in my life. You have been since I was sent to live with father. Do not underestimate how much I value you.”

Grayson’s expression softened.

Damian met his eyes. “You did nothing wrong. My… problems are mine alone. I will deal with them.”


End file.
